The Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes is receiving a $300,000 grant to upgrade public transit services.
Montana U.S. Senator Steve Daines announced a total of more than $700,000 in transit funding for three Montana Tribes on Wednesday.
CSKT gets $300,000, the Fort Belknap Indian Community will receive $220,000 while the Crow Tribe has been granted $193,731.
Jim Skinner with the Montana Department of Transportation says Flathead hasn’t seen this type of funding in over a decade.
He also believes that the federal money will support 11,000 jobs across the state.
“It’s going to provide stability for our program. It’ll allow us to make a more efficient use of the funds we’re going to get; because it has stability for planning, designing those projects – those improvements projects relate back to safety, improvements to economy and quality of life,” Skinner told MTN News.
He added that without this type of federal funding local projects such as the Kalispell Bypass project could have been delayed even longer.
Below is a list of some of the projects that will receive funding.
Federal Program Projects – Kalispell Area
2016 (under construction)
Four Mile Drive – in Kalispell (either side of the Kalispell Bypass): The West section of the project is new construction includes a two-lane road with sidewalks, a center turn lane, curbing, lighting, intersections and a bridge over the Kalispell Bypass for a future diamond interchange. The project will also reconstruct a short segment of Stillwater Road to improve intersection geometrics and sight distance at the new stop-controlled intersection with Four Mile Drive. The East segment of the project includes a new two-lane road with a detached bike path (on the north side of the road), roadside ditches and lighting.
Kalispell Bypass Project: The Kalispell Bypass is new construction on a new alignment.
US-2 to Three Mile Drive: This segment of the Bypass begins at US-2 and ends at Three Mile Drive. The project will generally build a 4-lane roadway with ramp connections to US-2 and Three Mile Drive. It also includes construction of a multi-lane roundabout at Two Mile Drive.
Three Mile Drive to Reserve Loop: This segment of the Bypass will be a 2-lane roadway beginning at Three Mile Drive and extending to Reserve Loop. It also includes the two south ramps (at the future interchange) at Reserve Loop and construction of noise walls.
2017
S. Fk Flathead – Hungry Horse: Project to Replace the South Fork Bridge on US 2 near Hungry Horse. This project will build a 2 lane bridge that accommodates alternate uses and allows for future expansion to 4 lanes.
Mountain Side to MP 133 (West of Whitefish): This project consists of reconstruction with added capacity of a segment of US 93 from just west of Mountainside Drive westerly for about 3.3 miles. The project will bring the roadway up to current standards including turn lanes, shared use path, guardrail and signing.
Helena Flats Road Signal/Intersection: This project will install a traffic control signal at the intersection of Montana 35 and Helena Flats Road, about a mile west of the intersection with US-2.
2018
Swan Lake- Jct MT 35: Pavement preservation (seal & cover) project on MT 83, from Swan Lake north to the intersection with MT-35. Approximately a 26 mile long segment.
Swan River Bridge: Bridge replacement, including replacing the deck and widening the Swan River Bridge, located on Secondary 209, approximately 5-miles east of Bigfork.
Dern Springs Intersection Reconstruction: Safety improvement project at the intersection of US-2 and Dern Springs Road, approximately 1 mile west of Kalispell.
Foy’s Canyon Road: Pavement preservation project on Secondary 503, about 5 miles SW of Kalispell. Approximately a 3.5 mile long segment.